


One Step Closer to the Finish Line

by Hauling777



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Genre: Behind the Scenes, Detective, F/M, Prequel, Ultimates - Freeform, danganronpa - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-09
Updated: 2018-08-09
Packaged: 2019-05-20 06:26:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 18,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14889351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hauling777/pseuds/Hauling777
Summary: What if Junko Enoshima and Mukuro Ikusaba's plan was much closer to getting exposed than most originally thought? There was a certain time in Danganronpa before the infamous "killing game" which has never been spoken about before. What truly happened before Trigger Happy Havoc when the students had just trapped themselves inside the school and the ultimate despair was preparing the final steps to her evil plan? Did one of the despair sisters hesitate to go through with the plan because of a certain hope filled boy? There is only one thing for certain: Despair will always win in the end.





	1. The Beginning of True Despair

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfiction so any constructive criticism would be appreciated! I love this Danganronpa and I was always curious about what had transpired specifically right after they had locked themselves inside the school once despair plagued the Earth. I've always wondered: what if Junko Enoshima was closer to getting busted than anybody originally thought? This first chapter is the beginning of my idea on what possibly happened! I'll probably take my time continuing this 'series' unless there's a lot of interest in this plot.

"After all we’ve done to get to this point already and now you’re getting cold feet, Muku? I guess that’s what I get for thinking you’d actually stop being a dumb useless idiot for once."

Junko Enoshima once again insulted her fellow sister of despair, Mukuro Ikusaba, as they walked together together down the school hallway in a slow pace so that Junko didn’t risk falling in her high heels. A majority of their plan had been set now that the world was currently wallowing in despair and the 78th class had chosen to lock themselves inside the rather large school in order to avoid the outside world; how ironic it was that trapping themselves inside here was exactly what the ultimate despair had planned.

"I-I wasn’t doubting the plan or anything, I was just curious why you wanted to work on the robots when they were already finished. I thought you made them already just so you didn’t have to risk being caught while we were trapped in the school?" Despite the nervous demeanor Mukuro usually had whenever speaking to her sister, she couldn’t help but smile a bit at Junko’s comment. She had gotten used to the constant insults a ways back and was more than delighted that Junko had such high expectations for her in the past.

"First of all, they’re Monokumas, not robots. Second of all, I need to make sure they work perfectly since it’s not like we have an unlimited supply or anything! If we don’t get our act spot on the first time then we can easily run out of Monokumas when the killing game starts and our plan will be ruined." Junko rolled her eyes as they finally reached their destination: the second floor boy’s bathroom. "How about you use your common sense once in a while, sis? It’ll be much easier for the both of us!"

"Sorry, I’ll be better from now on."

Located in the boy’s bathroom storage closet on the other side of the wall was a secret room where Junko had planned to do any last minute adjustments secretly while away from the other students. There were many other secret spots in the school where Junko could do some last minute touches on her work and Mukuro couldn’t help but wonder why she had to choose the boy’s bathroom of all places but didn’t dare question her younger sister again. As long as all she had to do was stand outside, it really shouldn’t be a problem.

"Alright sis! Why don’t you go ahead and come inside with me; you can wait in the supply closet while I’m working as a look out just in case one of the boys tries to sneak a peek. This job might actually prevent you from being as useless as usual." Junko entered the bathroom without even bothering to hold the door open for her sister.

The ultimate soldier hesitated before following Junko inside. The girl could already feel her face warming up as she glanced around the opposite gender’s private room. The urinals across the stalls only seemed to remind her exactly where she was at. "Can’t I wait outside? What if a boy c-catches me?"

"Then looks like your perverted ass has some complaining to do!" The pigtailed teen guffawed at her own joke before promptly returning to a serious expression. "I honestly don’t give a shit what you do, as long as they don’t figure out where I am. Now good luck sis! If you don’t fuck up here then we’ll be one step closer to seeking that wonderful despair you crave so much!"

Junko gave her sister’s rear a sharp slap causing the teen to uncharacteristically yelp in shock at the contact before Junko vanishes inside the storage closet and eventually the secret room. Once Mukuro was was sure that Junko had left, she immediately dashed inside the closet and stood perfectly still. 

A bead of sweat ran down the usually stoic girl’s face as she wasted no time wiping it away and shutting her eyes in hopes that the small adjustment would help calm her down. Standing in the boy’s bathroom for her sister wouldn’t ordinarily be a problem for her but for some reason the idea of getting caught inside here by one of the students who she has spent the past year in this school with was humiliating!

***  
It felt like hours passed as Junko worked silently in the hidden room. Mukuro’s legs were starting to fall asleep after standing in this position for so long and had eventually resorted to kicking her legs against the air which did nothing to help. She sighed as impatience started to creep into her system before the sound of a door opening snapped her back into reality. 

Mukuro’s eyes widened as she heard footsteps slowly becoming louder as the unknown person inched closer and closer to the closet. The soldier held her breath and stood completely still as she began to hear the stall next to her open. 

The plan was currently for Mukuro to stay absolutely silent until the boy disappeared but the sudden urge to sneeze ruined that idea completely. The girl’s hand instantly went to her nose in a desperate attempt to pinch her nostrils in order to put a halt to the strong urge but it was too late as she couldn’t help but sneeze; the noise echoed throughout the room and whoever entered the bathroom seconds earlier would have to be deaf not to hear it.

"What the- is there…a girl in here? Hello?" 

Mukuro’s already pale face went white as the voice next to her opened up the stall they were about to use and was clearly headed straight towards the supply closet. Out of everybody in this school, why did it have to be him?

"Mukuro?" Makoto Naegi’s voice cracked a bit as he opened the supply closet to see the normally stoic student standing by herself. Confusion covered his face along with embarrassment at the sight of a girl in the men’s bathroom. "W-what are you doing in here?"

The soldier wasted no time replying with the first excuse that came to her mind. "I thought this was the girl’s bathroom." Mukuro face palmed in her head at the lame excuse but kept her emotionless mask on her face in hopes that Makoto wouldn’t become suspicious about a possible hidden secret behind her.

"Oh…well what are you doing in the supply closet?" Makoto chuckled softly in hopes that it would ease the obvious tension in the room. He definitely wasn’t expecting her of all people to be hidden away in the opposite sex’s restroom but he wasn’t about to interrogate his friend or anything! He trusted that she had her reasons for being here..as strange as they might be.

Any other person caught in this situation might have panicked but luckily Mukuro had instincts when it came to being backed into a corner…unfortunately for her, words usually weren’t part of her repertoire.

"Makoto, can we talk please? Outside of here?" 

"Uh…sure."

Makoto lead the way outside up until Makoto held the door open for her; this forced Mukuro to move further away from the door than the ultimate lucky student currently was. The girl fought back a curse but was comforted by the fact that his back was facing the bathroom entrance so he had no intention of entering again and possibly revealing the hidden passageway at the very least.

Awkward silence filled the mostly empty hallway as Mukuro did nothing but stare at the boy with unease. Most people would be uncomfortable at the intimidating teen’s gaze but Makoto had gotten used to the sheer awkwardness of the shy girl after spending around a year with her. He was the first one to speak up, "You wanted to talk to me?"

"Yeah."

"…What did you need to talk to me about?"

"Anything."

Another small laugh came out of Makoto’s mouth at the response as he couldn’t help but smile. Mukuro avoided his eye sight and did her best not to blush after seeing him grin. Not many of the students smiled at her so she had learned to treasure every time Makoto gave her his signature smirk but right now she just wished he would go away.

Makoto couldn’t help but ask once again, "So what were you doing in the boy’s bathroom?"

"I already told you." Mukuro replied flatly. "It was an accident."

The boy couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the clearly suspicious soldier but was much too polite to suspect her of anything. "Right. Well I’m going to go ahead and use the bathroom real quick and then I’ll come back and we can finish talking."

Mukuro was a second away from gripping Makoto’s arm in order to stop him from entering the restroom when both students were suddenly caught off guard at the sight of the brunet’s pants suddenly being brought down to his knees. It took a few seconds for either of the teenagers to react at the sudden predicament.

"S-shit!" Makoto mumbled as he wasted no time grabbing his fallen pants and yanking them back over his boxers as his face began to redden to the point where it somewhat resembled a tomato. Once he was properly covered he turned around to see the culprit of his pantsing, Junko, having just come out of the bathroom.

"Cute undies!" Junko sung as she entered the hallway and stood alongside Mukuro. She turned to Makoto with an annoyed expression on her face. "Can you head back to your dorm or something? We have something we need to talk about."

"Y-y-yeah! I’ll see you later." Makoto muttered goodbye before making his way down the stairs in a flash, grateful for a reason to leave as he blushed harder than ever before. 

Junko sneered as Makoto left. "You seriously had a problem getting rid of him? Virgins like Makoto are easy to deal with, all you had to do was flash your panties or something and he would have been gone in an instant while muttering a bunch of apologies or something like that." The fashionista paused before facing Mukuro and giggling. "Wait a second, did you like what you saw? I guess I can’t be too surprised, it’s only reasonable for dumb bony slugs to be attracted to each other I guess."

Mukuro didn’t realize until now but her cheeks must have matched the same as Makoto’s were; no matter how hard she tried to go back to normal, the blush returned whenever she thought too hard about this whole situation in general. She was ashamed that she was embarrassed so easily so she avoided Junko’s eyes and stared at the floor instead. 

"So are going to have to get rid of Makoto now that he’s suspicious of us?" Mukuro couldn’t stop herself from asking out of pure curiosity and admittedly some worry.

"Seriously? You really think that guy will be the one to unveil our plans? As long as he doesn’t bring his detective friend on our asses then we should be fine." Junko answered before she snapped her fingers and pointed down the hallway. "Anyways, now that I finished my nap, we still have more work to do before we get to the fun part!"

Mukuro couldn’t help but grit her teeth at that comment. Was Junko really napping for who knows how long? Was that whole scene really unavoidable if she had just taken this whole thing seriously? The frustration eventually passed as Junko began walking.

Mukuro had no issue following along because Junko needed help bringing the world into despair.

Mukuro would do anything as long as it helped her sister.


	2. A Detective's Pursuit of the Truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I expected to take a little bit longer to update this but I got excited and started writing a lot...oh well! No Danganronpa story is the same without Kyoko Kirigiri so I added her along with an updated bio which I tried to make a little bit shorter and more intriguing in order to gain more interest. I'm also planning out seven chapters of this including the epilogue so hopefully this gives you an idea on how long I want this fanfic to be!
> 
> Sorry if the account who bookmarked this story is getting twelve notifications because I'm trying to update the bio, the tags, and the story itself and I'm still not quite used to this website lol. Anyways, enjoy!

It was common for the friendly Makoto Naegi to say hello or give some sort of greeting whenever he passes by a classmate of his so the ultimate detective, Kyoko Kirigiri, couldn’t help but speak up when she saw the boy with his hands in his pockets and his head down as they passed each other in the first floor hallway. "Is everything alright, Naegi? You seem flustered."

"O-oh, Kiri! I didn’t see you there." Makoto stopped in his tracks as he called his friend by her usual nickname while giving her a nervous smile. He hoped desperately that the blush he was wearing since the…incident…had disappeared by now. "I just saw something weird earlier, it’s not that big of a deal."

"Something weird? What did you see?" Kyoko’s detective instincts kicked in as she probed the brunet for answers almost immediately. The ultimate couldn’t help but guiltily become a little excited at the idea of something unnatural happening, as long as it wasn’t anything dangerous of course. Being forced to live inside these halls day after day definitely limited possibilities for her to use her true talent so any excuse for her to investigate something was more than welcome.

Makoto immediately regretted bringing up what he saw the second it came out of his mouth. He didn’t want to have false rumors flying around about his friend purposely going in the wrong bathroom or anything! The ultimate lucky student was about to change the subject when he caught only a small glimpse at Kyoko’s face which was just daring him not to tell her anything; not informing the detective would only make her mad at him and it wasn’t like she would go around blabbering secrets to everyone so he figured he could tell her about this small and unimportant interaction. 

"You promise not to tell anyone?" Makoto trusted the girl of course but still wanted confirmation first.

"I promise." Kirigiri’s reply came immediately after the teen had finished his question.

"Alright. Well, I happened to be on the second floor of the school and I had to use the restroom. While I was in there, I suddenly heard a high pitched sneeze from the supply closet. When I checked to see who it was I saw Mukuro Ikusaba standing alone in there; she said she accidentally walked inside which was kind of odd…now that I think about it, once I was outside I saw Junko leave the men’s bathroom but I could’ve sworn I didn’t see her in any of the stalls or anything."

"That is odd. It’s apparent that they were up to something, that fact is clear. Ikusaba’s excuse wasn’t very well thought out so that could only mean that she had expected to be in and out in a quick fashion and didn’t consider the idea of being caught." Kyoko spoke mostly to herself as she began to deduce what Makoto had told her. "If what you say about Enoshima is true then we should investigate the bathroom and figure out for ourselves where she could have been hiding; that is if you decide to aid me in my investigation of course. I doubt it’s anything too serious but that kind of behavior is still suspicious."

"You want to investigate right now?" Makoto was taken aback at Kyoko’s sudden interest. He was curious about the whole situation too but the last thing he wanted was for another girl to be walking around in the guy’s bathroom.

Kirigiri shook her head. "No, I’m sure they will be keeping a keen eye on the bathroom during the day if it truly is that important. Our best plan of action would be to check it out at night while Ikusaba and Enoshima are asleep."

"I-I mean I’ll help you but…don’t you think people would get the wrong idea if they saw a boy and a girl walking around the halls in the middle of the night?"

Kyoko crossed her arms and turned her head to the side in order to avoid eye contact with Makoto. She honestly hadn’t consider such a notion. "The whole concept of going in the night is so that nobody witnesses our investigation besides us. Since we’re not actually doing anything unseemly I figured it wouldn’t be an issue."

"N-no! Of course not!" Makoto suddenly felt like an idiot as he cleared his throat. "What time are we leaving?"

"I’ll come to your room and get you once I’m sure everyone is asleep. Now I have to go; I’ll see you tonight, Naegi."

Kyoko swiftly walked past Makoto after saying farewell without even waiting for his reply. The ultimate detective would be lying if she didn’t admit that she left so abruptly partly out of embarrassment of the brunet’s earlier implication but mainly because she also wanted to scan the area around the men’s washroom in preparation for the investigation tonight. This sort of thing is her expertise after all.

***

It only took a couple knocks on the ultimate lucky student’s dormitory door for Makoto to open it with a nervous expression on his face; he wouldn’t admit this but he had been eagerly waiting for Kyoko to arrive albeit he wasn’t sure if it was because he was excited or he just wanted to get this investigation over with.

"This shouldn’t take too much of your time, the chances of there actually being something of value in the bathroom is slim to none." Kirigiri admitted with a shrug as they made their way out of the dormitory corridor and into the open area with the dining hall on the left and the bath house on the right.

Instead of responding, Makoto decided to only nod. He was secretly hoping that Junko and Mukuro weren’t up to something weird or anything like that. He wanted to trust his friends and if anybody could confirm their innocence than it was the ultimate detective.

The lucky student was forced out of his thoughts when he suddenly felt someone grab his arm in a firm grip and tug him into the bath house. The boy was about to shout or instinctively struggle at the very least until he felt a gloved hand cover his mouth and tilt his head sideways; the culprit of the sneak attack was of course, Kyoko Kirigiri, who had a single index finger pointed upwards by her lips in a silent attempt to tell him to keep quiet.  
Makoto wanted badly to ask her what was wrong but with how tight she was squeezing his face, he figured now wasn’t the best of times to demand answers.

Minutes passed and eventually Kyoko had moved her hands away from her friend’s face as they waited patiently for…well Makoto wasn’t very sure what they were waiting for. 

"I saw someone following us." Kirigiri finally spoke up as she turned towards Naegi with a serious expression on her face. "I only caught a glimpse of them but I figured I could get them off our trail if we entered an enclosed area where they couldn’t hide from our view. I’m positive they gave up on us by now because they had no clue when we were leaving. Now that they’re gone, we can head to our destination." The girl turned abruptly and began leaving the bath house and heading towards the second floor once again.

"Hey, wait a second!" Makoto jogged to Kyoko in order to catch up to her fast pace. "Are you sure you weren’t just seeing things? I mean, everyone should be asleep by now and it’d be impossible for a someone to come enter from the outside!"

She only shook her head in response. "I’m positive about what I saw. There’s no use worrying about it now though, they’re gone."

Despite her reassurance, Makoto couldn’t help but become paranoid as he glanced behind them every so often to make sure they weren’t being tailed or followed. Why in the world would anybody be interested enough in what they were up to to stalk them?  
Once they made their way onto the second floor, the brunet expected to talk a bit before going straight into things but apparently Kyoko had other plans as she entered the men’s room immediately after confirming it was the right location. Makoto only sighed before hesitantly following suit. 

The bathroom was just like Makoto had seen it last, there was a sink with urinals to the right of it on one side along with four stalls and the supply closet at the very end on the other side. Makoto tried to make himself look busy as Kyoko searched each stall for a longer time than he felt necessary though she was the ultimate detective so he decided not to doubt her investigating skills.

There were still no jaw dropping secrets by the time they reached the supply closet and Makoto was sincerely believing that there wasn’t one in the first place at this point. That didn’t stop Kirigiri from entering the closet and searching every single object with an intrigued expression as if every little thing was a vital clue to…whatever she was looking for.

It was becoming clear to Kyoko herself that there was most likely nothing to find in this cramped bathroom at least until she touched the back wall of the supply closet and a creaking noise pierced the teenagers ears as the wall began to rotate; the weight Kyoko had against the moving wall forced the girl to nearly fall flat onto her face inside the newfound secret room. Luckily the ultimate detective’s quick reflexes aided her in using her palms to stop herself from face planting as she pushed herself back onto her feet.

Unfortunately the ultimate ‘lucky’ students didn’t have the same reaction as his attempt to enter the room left him face first on the floor while emitting a loud "oof" sound.

"What is the place?" Makoto rubbed his aching head as he joined Kyoko on his feet and stared wide eyed at the hidden entrance in sudden realization on what it truly was…a hidden entrance! 

"A secret room of some sort." Kirigiri stated the obvious for her dumbfounded friend as she looked from his face, which had gone as white as a sheet, to the compact area in which her detective instincts willed her to investigate every nook and cranny. 

The square room was relatively tiny and had plenty of pipes located all over along with a bookcase on the side of the wall and a wooden desk directly in the middle. Kyoko’s first instinct was to see what was precisely written in the books; she nearly made her way to the bookcase before suddenly stopping and turning towards Makoto.  
"Naegi, it might be better if you waited outside just in case one of our friends come by and try to enter here. You look like you might need a breath of fresh air too." Kyoko suggested to Makoto in hopes that she made it lucid enough on exactly who those ’friends’ are.

Makoto nodded and promptly proceeded to leave as Kyoko walked over to the bookcase with determination that she was going to find out what exactly what Ikusaba and Enoshima were hiding.

The bad news for the ultimate detective was that the only thing on the shelves were yearbooks of multiple years that looked dusty enough to be decades old. The only remotely suspicious book was one labeled ‘Hope’s Peak Academy Student Registry.’ Kyoko pulled the student registry out but there wasn’t anything necessarily odd about it besides the fact that it was here in the first place. This definitely explained where Junko was at while Naegi and Ikusaba were talking earlier but why would she be here anyways?

A disappointed sigh emitted itself from Kirigiri’s lips as she examined the desk to find it relatively empty of anything important; with how suspicious this room seemed, there was nothing odd or even remotely deplorable. After spending a couple more minutes going over everything one last time, she left the room with more questions than answers. Why would those girls need a room like this anyways? How did they even find out about it?

"There was really nothing of interest inside besides some yearbooks that date back to multiple years ago. Did any friends come to visit?" Kyoko questioned Naegi with a frown as she left the hidden room to find him sitting against the bathroom wall looking equally dejected. "Is everything alright?"

"Nobody came." Makoto replied unemotionally which was unusual for such an emotional person. The fact that the brunet refused to make eye contact was even more uncanny. His voice became a little more aggressive once he spoke up again. "Just because Mukuro and Junko know about some secret room doesn’t mean they’re hiding anything, right? It could just coincidentally be in the guy’s bathroom and they just hide inside for some privacy every once in a while or something."

"That seems to be the most plausible reason." Kyoko admitted that it was doubtful that both Ikusaba or Enoshima were doing anything unjust but she also realized earlier that they weren’t hiding anything at all at one point also. Whether it’s a big deal or not, there were two things for certain: First is that there is much more to Junko Enoshima and Mukuro Ikusaba than anyone previously thought…secondly is that the ultimate detective has gotten her interest piqued; death will be the only way to stop Kyoko Kirigiri from finding the truth of this case.


	3. Curiosity Killed the Cat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little bit on the short side since I had to cut a scene out of it. The good news is that I'll be adding that scene to the next chapter so chapter 4 will more than make up for this one length wise! This is also a different point of view of the same night in chapter 2 but since we're pretty much at the half way point of this fan fiction (time sure does fly!) things are going to start heating up very soon, trust me! We know how this story ends up so it's time to find out what happened in between!

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

Mukuro Ikusaba waited for quite a bit once she was finished knocking as she stood alone in the hallway wearing her usual school uniform. It felt like there was never going to be an answer until the door suddenly flung open and Leon Kuwata, the ultimate high school baseball star, leaned against the door frame with a surprised smile on his face.

"Well would you look at that!" Leon laughed as he shoved one of his hand in his pants pocket and glanced at the empty hallways to make sure nobody else was there before facing the female soldier in front of him. "You are definitely the last person I expected to show up to my room in the middle of the night. What’s up?"

"Can I come in? I need to talk to you about something." Mukuro’s blank expression as well as her emotionless tone made the baseball player raise an eyebrow as he let out a fake and clearly forced chuckle. Junko specifically told her sister to ‘seduce’ Leon but that was definitely something the girl had no idea how to do; she figured it wouldn’t be very hard to wing it but the results of that idea was not paying off.

"Can’t this wait until tomorrow? A guy like me needs his beauty sleep, you know?"

Mukuro shook her head. She knew this conversation wasn’t necessarily going the direction it was supposed to be going but felt powerless to speak up and change it.

Leon whistled quietly to himself in order to avoid the awkward silence that had filled the air before sighing. "Look…Maka? Makuno? Whatever, we don’t really talk that much so it’d probably be better if we did this at the dining hall in the morning or something…unless you had something else in mind when you ‘came to talk’ of course."

"Yes…I have something else in mind." The girl wasted no time jumping on the excuse Leon had inadvertently given her; she was surprisingly thankful to whoever created the strong lust in which teenage male hormones created as the entire interaction would have gone downhill without it.

"Wait seriously?" Leon was so caught off guard that he wasn’t even suspicious by Ikusaba’s less than enthusiastic response. He took an agonizingly slow couple of seconds to look at the soldier up and down…Mukuro tried not to react even though it felt like every inch of her was being examined as if she were some zoo animal in an exhibit. Kuwata suddenly looked his classmate in the eyes again before giving his signature smirk which had caught most ladies like a fish in a hook many times before. "It’s always the shy ones, huh? Come on in! I just made my bed."

The second Leon turned around, the ultimate soldier went into action. She jumped towards her victim and wrapped one of her arms around his throat in order to keep him still; the teen attempted to shout but Mukuro’s firm grip forced only a quiet squeak to come out of his mouth. It wasn’t very difficult for her to pull out a chloroform soaked rag and cover his mouth with it.

Leon fruitlessly fought for his freedom but all the struggling did was tire himself out. Mukuro was more than patient enough to hold her position until the victim began to lose consciousness and eventually lay limp in her hands. The next destination was Junko’s room which wasn’t too far away luckily for the lean girl who had to carry the larger body. 

At least that was the plan until Mukuro suddenly heard another door near her opening; she quickly shut Leon’s door nearly all the way but left it cracked open a bit in order to hear who was outside of their dorms at such a late hour.

The soldier couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow as she recognized Kirigiri and Naegi’s voice but couldn’t quite decipher what they were saying because of their quiet whispers…why were they even together so late at night?

Curiosity spread throughout Mukuro’s body like wildfire as she heard footsteps walking further and further down the hall. She couldn’t stop herself from opening the door a bit more so she can peek outside to see the duo nearing the hallway to the first floor classrooms. Ikusaba watched them leave as she took a step outside and was strongly considering following them to see what they were up to when Kirigiri suddenly grabbed Makoto and yanked him inside the bath house.

Mukuro’s eyes widened…what could they possibly be doing in there during this time of night?

The girl waited for quite a bit in hopes that they would only stay inside the bath house for a moment but no matter how long she stood in the hallway, neither student would come out. Eventually Mukuro realized that each second she spent out in the open increased her chances of being caught with an unconscious body plus she could practically hear Junko’s voice yelling at her for taking so long at this point so she picked up Leon’s body and dragged him to her sister’s dorm room.

"It’s about time!" Junko shouted once Mukuro entered her room as she sat on the bed playing with her pigtails with clear boredom showing on her face. "I know you look like a snail but that doesn’t mean you have to be as slow as one! Now where is my handsome little prince?"  
Junko squealed in excitement at the sight of seeing Leon in her sister’s hands before immediately becoming bored of her happiness and pointing at an empty plastic chair with a frown. "Put him there." They have been planning this for quite a while and eventually decided on Leon as the first victim considering he wasn’t the smartest of the group nor would anyone be surprised if he ‘skipped’ a couple days worth of classes. Based off of Mukuro’s clearly effortless success, it wasn’t a bad decision either.

Ikusaba grunted as she had to lift the baseball star’s body and put him onto the chair as her sister watched impatiently. Once he was in a sitting position, Junko shoved her sister out of the way and gripped the boy’s jaw tightly; she then began to speak with a deeper voice while moving Leon’s mouth like a ventriloquist.

"Thank goodness this hot sexy babe is going to start touching me instead of that flat chested sloth! I think I was experiencing shrinkage there for a second!" Junko giggled at her own joke before waving Mukuro away with her hand and speaking in her actual voice. "I’ll start working on his memory but he won’t wake up for a while so you can go away and do whatever you want for a couple of hours. I don’t want to look at you anymore."

Mukuro nodded and left the room in a hurry; normally when Junko told her to leave, she would just sit on her bed and wait until her sister was ready to see her again but this time the soldier had something do: it was time to see exactly what Naegi and Kirigiri were up to.

***

After finding the bath house completely empty, Mukuro had a nagging feeling that Makoto and his detective friend weren’t quite finished sneaking around the halls; her very first instinct was to check the second floor bathroom in which Naegi caught her and Junko before. Her instinct only proved itself correct when she saw the boy pacing back and forth near the supply closet with his hands in his pockets and his head down.

"Naegi? What are you doing here?" Ikusaba interrogated the student immediately after she entered the room. Seeming suspicious didn’t matter to her any longer, not if he was already on her trail.

"Mukuro?" Makoto lifted his head up and seemed like he was going to hurl. "What are you doing here…again? This is the guy’s bathroom!"

The ultimate soldier ignored the lucky student’s question and instead responded with one of her own as she glanced around the room in search for a certain purple haired girl. "Where’s Kirigiri?"

"She’s not here, I came alone." Makoto replied with a surprisingly straight face but Mukuro wasn’t quite sure he was telling the truth. "What are you doing, Mukuro? Every part of me wants to trust you but you’ve been acting really strange today."

"Fine. Even if she’s hiding, I want you to convince her to stop this." The girl replied even though she could feel her heart sting a bit at his comment. The fact that Makoto still wanted to trust a murderer like her even after she’s made it plainly obvious she’s hiding something made her wish he had never caught her here earlier today. "I would suggest you give up whatever you’re doing and stay out of my way. Things won’t end pleasantly if you continue investigating and I would rather avoid harming either of you. If you tell Kirigiri that I came here then we both know she will not stop so I hope that you can convince her to give up yourself without mentioning my visit for both of your sakes. This is your one and final warning, Naegi."

Without even waiting for his reply, Mukuro turned and promptly left the bathroom. 

She knew that Junko would have preferred she had taken Makoto out much like she did Leon not too long ago but the soldier didn’t find that necessary. Part of the reason might be because she didn’t really find the ordinary Makoto Naegi to be a threat to anybody even if he did know they were up to something. On the other hand, Mukuro would most likely have to take care of the detective as soon as possible but as long as Makoto slowed down her investigation at the very least, the soldier wouldn’t have to anything drastic at the moment.

Another part of Mukuro didn’t want to hurt either of them because of the time they spent together as classmates the past year or so…but if they continue to sneak off like they did tonight…things wouldn’t end peacefully if they even consider attempting to prevent Junko’s plan from occurring.

After all, curiosity killed the cat.


	4. Blind Faith

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Took a day longer than usual but ch. 4 is also an extra 1k words than usual too! There's a lot of different scene changes in this one because I have a lot of story to tell but I also don't want to make 50 five hundred word chapters.
> 
> I'd also like to point out to anybody curious, this story will be six chapters long with a short epilogue which will be only a few paragraphs or slightly more...so pretty much only 2 chapters left! It's starting to get interesting (hopefully), Hope you enjoy!

"Wakie wakie!" Leon Kuwata slowly began to gain consciousness as he heard someone speaking to him in a high pitched and irksomely babyish voice. Once he was able to open his eyes, he saw a blonde girl around his age wearing two twin pigtails and a high school uniform; she currently had her body squeezed together and her lower lip puckered out as if she were imitating a young child. "Pwetty pwease wake up mister, it’s morning time already!"

"W-where am I?" Leon looked around the area and recognized it as some sort of dorm room with plenty of posters of the girl in front of him in many different poses on the wall. He tried to stand up from the chair he was seated on but was unable to as he realized rope was tied around his body and held him down tightly.

The blonde’s posture suddenly changed as she stuck her tongue out and crossed her arms over one another with only her index and pinky fingers in the air. Her voice was much more gravely when she spoke. "Obviously my room, dumb ass!" She laughed crazily before immediately frowning and returning to a relatively normal voice. "Tell me the last thing you remember. Then we can help you."

The word ‘we’ made the baseball player turn his head to the right to see another teenage girl leaning against a closed door with her arms crossed. She had short black hair and was fairly skinny but the look in her eyes had something intense about them; Leon couldn’t help but shudder at the sight of her.

"I-I…the last thing I remember is entering Hope’s Peak High school. I was running like fifteen minutes late so I was sort of rushing when all of a sudden I started getting dizzy in the middle of the damn hallway! Everything was spinning around in circles and then I woke up here. Now can you please let me g-"

"Perfect! It worked!" The blonde interrupted as she jumped in the air in joy. "Muku! Make yourself useful and take care of him. We need to take away his memory of what happened here and he can’t be awake for that!"

Leon’s eyes widened as he saw whoever this Muku chick was nod and begin to take steps towards him. The boy began to fight against his restraints as panic filled throughout his body. "What are you, crazy? Let me go! Let me go or I’ll-"

The last thing Kuwata heard was a smacking sound before everything went dark.

***

"Where is Kuwata?" Kiyotaka Ishimaru’s voice rose above all others as he jumped out of his seat and shouted to nobody in particular. Fifteen students of the 78th class sat in a minuscule classroom with the school’s lone teacher and head master, Jin Kirigiri, having yet to show up yet. This was a frequent and common occurrence considering his difficult job as the only adult in the entire building but what did seem odd was the empty seat towards the back of the classroom where Leon Kuwata usually sat. "The bell is about to ring in under a minute and he has yet to show up or notify us of his absence! How…how…ludicrous!"

Most of the class would normally be annoyed by the Ultimate Moral Compass’s constant nagging but ever since the biggest, most awful, most tragic event in human history occurred it had become slightly more tolerable. Many of the students had lost a bit of their positive or outgoing personalities thanks to the despair inducing tragedy but Taka was one of the few students who didn’t let it affect him. 

After a couple moment of silence, Mondo Owada also known as the ultimate Biker Gang Leader, was the first to respond. It was mostly because he was in the middle of sleeping and just wanted his classmate to be quiet already. "Who cares man? It’s not that big of a deal, he probably just ditched because he was tired of hearing lectures or some shit. I don’t blame him."

"That makes sense." Junko piped in from the front corner desk of the classroom on the opposite side of the door. "I mean is that guy really about to go to every single class every single day? He was bad enough before the world ended so I can’t really see him randomly becoming an honor student all of a sudden." She began playing with her lengthy ruby colored nails as if she wasn’t interested in the conversation whatsoever.

Not everyone was happy with the fashionista’s word choice but there were quiet grumbles of agreement and no suspicion whatsoever about why Leon wasn’t in class. Junko gave her sister, who sat a seat behind her, a quick smile.

"An ultimate student skipping class. Ridiculous." Taka mumbled to himself but took a seat in the very front of the class and eventually stopped talking about the topic entirely. 

Once it was confirmed a few minutes later that the headmaster was running a little late, the classroom began to become noisier with private conversation which the ultimate despair considered perfect timing to have a quiet conversation of her own.

"Muku, is that one favor I asked you taken care of?" Enoshima whispered to her sister as she referred to Leon’s body; Junko had originally told Mukuro not to come back to her room once she was done hiding it because the ultimate despair was tired of seeing her ugly sister’s face though the results of that decision caused her to be unsure where the body was even located. A small nod was the only response the soldier gave as Junko smiled widely. "Perfect! You might not be…"

The fashionista attention suddenly was aimed at a certain detective who sat one seat diagonally behind Mukuro. 

Kyoko had her face planted in a book and was seemingly engrossed in it, she moved her eyes as if she were reading the words and turned a page in a reasonable amount of time. Junko might have fallen for the girl’s ruse if it weren’t for one particular detail: Kirigiri’s head was tilted to the right a bit while also leaning towards the sisters slightly which only meant that she was eavesdropping and was forced to lean closer after having trouble hearing them.

Enoshima was very perceptive for a model who many believe is all looks and no brains. Her brilliant and not to mention despair inducing plan would have been exposed many months ago if she wasn’t. So Junko was prepared to test out her little theory.

"Hey Ikusaba." Junko didn’t use her sister’s nickname for once which seemed to have caught Mukuro off guard as well. "I had the strangest dream last night! It involved me, you, and Yamada buck naked in a movie theatre!"

The indication of disgust and confusion that appeared on Kyoko’s face lasted for merely a second but that was all Junko needed to confirm that the world’s greatest detective was onto her and that was the last thing the ultimate despair currently needed.

Mukuro seemed to be blushing and caught off guard by the anomalous dream herself which Junko didn’t bother explaining. Instead, she silently mouthed four word to her sister. 

"The detective is next."

***

The ultimate soldier waited patiently outside of Kyoko Kirigiri’s dorm room. Nightfall had fallen once again and Mukuro was prepared to ambush her second target for the second day in a row. It would be much more difficult to deceive Kirigiri into letting her guard down like she did Leon so Junko was currently making her way to the control room where she can unlock the door without a hitch.

The other problem of the detective interfering with their plan so early was that her disappearance would arouse much more suspicion than Leon’s did especially from Jin Kirigiri himself. The killing game plan would have to be shortened considerably because of this issue and the finishing touches would have to commence immediately after kidnapping the headmaster’s daughter. 

A clicking sound signaling that the door was now unlocked snapped Mukuro from her thoughts as she took a deep breath in order to increase her focus on the mission. The teenager’s soldier instincts began to kick in as she slowly grips the door handle and opens the door in a tantalizingly slow pace in order to avoid any creaks or other sounds which would alert the more than likely sleeping victim.

Eventually Mukuro was able to enter the exceptionally neat room without producing any loud noises. She glanced around the compact dorm quickly in order to get an understanding of her surroundings before turning towards the bed in preparation to see the snoozing Kirigiri so she could take care of her quickly.

There was only one problem: the bed was empty.

***

Makoto Naegi prepared himself for many improbable events that could happen when he had first got invited to Hope’s Peak Academy, a school meant for the elite teenagers around the world. The chances of the impossible happening in the best high school on the planet were insanely high.

Even with those expectation, Makoto never prepared himself for a girl to come to his door and request to stay in his room for the night. Especially not the usually quiet and reserved Kyoko Kirigiri.

The brunet couldn’t help but squirm and blush a little bit on the floor just thinking about how a female was laying on the bed not too far away from him. Once he agreed to let her stay over, she had originally insisted on sleeping on the floor but Naegi had always been taught to be a gentleman by his father and he would have felt way too guilty if he forced a girl to sleep on the cold hard floor. Eventually they agreed on a comprise where Kyoko slept on the bed while Makoto kept the blanket while on the floor.

There was no doubt in Makoto’s mind that his mom would be pissed about this situation and his sister would tease him half to death if they found out. Not that anybody would know what happened tonight considering Kiri’s reason for sleeping over in the first place.

"You don’t really think they’re going to hurt you in the middle of the night, do you?" The lucky student spoke about the reason why Kyoko came to his room in the first place. To hide from Junko and Mukuro. 

No immediate response came from the girl and Makoto was just about to officially announce her as asleep when the seemingly disembodied voice finally responded. "I can’t say for sure if they’d harm me or not but they’ve only been acting more and more suspicious as of late. It would be unreasonable for me to risk my safety just because it’s improbable."

"I guess I can understand…but what if they come here after they find your room empty?"  
"That’s unlikely, they wouldn’t risk breaking inside every student’s dorm just to find me." Makoto could practically see Kyoko shaking her head. She paused a bit before adding, "That’s purely conjecture though."

Makoto nodded as if the detective could see him before sighing. He knew how impressive Kiri’s instinct was of course but the boy also couldn’t help but feel that she was overreacting. The world was currently in ruins outside, this school was supposed to be where they were safe from dangers! Mukuro did seem intimidating the night before in the guy’s bathroom but she was probably just upset about them finding out about her secret hideout and overreacted.

What are the chances that the girls he has grown to know the past year in this school would end up being dangerous psychopaths? It seemed impossible!

It was definitely going to be difficult to slumber with all these thoughts in his head but Makoto knew stressing out about it would do nothing; all he could do was trust that Kyoko would prove the sisters’ innocence tomorrow. The brunet turned to his side and shut his eyes but not before muttering, "Good night, Kiri."

"…Good night, Naegi."

Makoto didn’t even remember falling asleep by the time he felt someone lightly shaking him and calling his last name softly. The last thing he wanted to do was wake up but eventually the constant pressure on his shoulder forced his eyelids to spread open.

"Naegi, it’s morning. Class will be starting soon." The brunet saw Kyoko Kirigiri kneeling next to him with a gloved hand resting on his shoulder and her body mere inches away from his own. Makoto felt his face begin to heat up at their close proximity.

"O-oh, right!" The teen sat up a bit causing Kiri to stand up in response. "I should go get ready then…if you want, you can use my show-"

"I already got finished getting ready while you were asleep; my apologies for not asking for your permission." Kyoko interrupted. Makoto’s eye sight was finally beginning to adjust to the bright lights of his dorm room and he just noticed that the detective was already wearing her school uniform and her hair was braided and nearly perfect with no hint of bed head whatsoever. "Now I’ll give you some privacy to get ready yourself. I’ll get started on my investigation"Kyoko spun around and made her way to the front door before coming to an abrupt stop at Makoto’s voice. "Hey wait!" 

Naegi winced when he felt a sharp pain in his back while trying to stand up; it must have been from sleeping on the hard floor all night. Ignoring the pain, he forced his exhausted body to stand on his feet and jogged over to the motionless purple haired girl. "What do you mean investigation? Aren’t you going to class?"

"Revealing myself to Enoshima and Ikusaba right now would make my stay here redundant. If they really are responsible for Leon’s disappearance after all then I have no doubt that they would trail me until I’m left alone and dispose of me."  
"Wait…you think they did something to Leon?"

The expression on Kyoko’s face practically told Makoto that she let something she didn’t want to say out loud slip out of her mouth. She calmly responded, "It’s just a hunch. Just know that I have my suspicions for a reason and I’ll be searching for evidence today while I investigate. You don’t have to listen but my advice would be to avoid the ultimate fashionista and the ultimate soldier as much as possible."

An abnormal sense of anger flowed through Makoto’s body at Kiri’s cold and phlegmatic accusation. How could she say such a thing about friends who she’s known for so long now? There were many responses that Naegi had in mind but eventually he felt his heart soften and nothing belligerent came out of his mouth. 

"Well say they are trying to hurt you…how will I know if they actually do or not? It’s not like you would be able to tell me."

Kirigiri seemed caught off guard at her classmate’s sudden concern. She hesitated before finding an answer. "I’ll come back here before you’re out of class. If you don’t see me then that means I was captured. Now I have to leave before everyone else starts wandering around the halls. I’ll see you this afternoon, Naegi."

Makoto couldn’t find it in himself to respond as he watched the girl leave his room and shut the door behind her. It was slightly comforting knowing that he wouldn’t be left in the dark if she was injured but the possibility of that happening still made him feel butterflies in the pit of his stomach.

It took a few moments for the boy to find the motivation to move from his position in the middle of the room; one glance at the clock was all the motivation he needed to immediately rush to the shower after grabbing his clothes from one of the drawers.   
After taking the quickest shower he has ever taken in his life, Makoto wasted no time getting dressed before leaving his room. The boy took a moment to consider whether or not he was going to keep his door unlocked for Kiri before eventually deciding on leaving it locked. He would just make sure he was the first student at the dorms after class so she wouldn’t be caught in the open in front of everybody. 

Each step Naegi took felt like an extra ten pound weight was being tied to him. Part of him wanted to ditch class with Kyoko and investigate with her but he knew that the ultimate detective would only be slowed down by a normal student like him. 

Once he entered the classroom around five minutes past the time they were usually supposed to arrive, all eyes turned his direction. Everyone besides Leon and Kiri was inside…excluding head master Kirigiri who was late once again of course.

"Naegi, is Kirigiri not with you?" Surprisingly Sakura Ogami was the first one to speak as she crossed her arms while the rest of the class stared at the lucky student with curious eyes. "We thought it was suspicious that three of you were missing so I was about to come check on you all."

"I-I just woke up a little late is all." Makoto excused himself while rubbing the back of his head. "Kiri’s fine I’m sure, I think she just caught a cold or something."

Most of the class seemed satisfied with that answer and Makoto barely stopped himself from sighing in relief as he made his way to his desk in the middle of the room and plopped down. The awkward atmosphere that was in the classroom when he entered was seemingly going back to normal until Makoto turned to his left to see Junko Enoshima staring directly at him.

There was a frown on the attractive model’s face at first but the second she saw Naegi turn his head, she changed that to a giant grin, revealing her pearly white teeth to her classmate. Most guys would love to see the ultimate fashionista smile at them but for some reason Makoto felt that her grin resembled something creepy like the Cheshire cat.

"Is everything alright, Makoto?" The soft voice made the brunet jump as he turned to see one of his closest friends in this school, Sayaka Maizono, sitting in her usual desk right next to him; she wore a worried smile on her face. "You seem a little off today."

"Yeah, I’m good!" Makoto reassured the ultimate pop star and partly himself as he did his best to ignore the pair of eyes seemingly burning through him from across the room. 

Once the headmaster arrived, the day went relatively smoothly with nothing odd happening and without many conversation about Kiri’s whereabouts. For some reason these regularities had Makoto spending most of the class tapping his desk impatiently in hopes he could just be released already!

What suddenly caught the boy’s attention was when Mukuro raised her hand out of the blue in the middle of class requesting to go to the bathroom…which has completely ordinary. There was nothing abnormal at all about having to use the restroom during a long and not to mention boring lecture and that’s precisely what Makoto told himself in his head over and over again as seconds and eventually minutes passed by. 

Plenty of time continued to pass before the possibilities of what the ultimate soldier could be doing in the halls alone if she hadn’t truly planned go to the bathroom became too much for Naegi to bare. The hopeful student did something he wouldn’t have expected to do ever since Kyoko came up with the ludicrous idea that Junko Enoshima and Mukuro Iksusaba were planning something…he doubted his friends.

"May I use the restroom?" Makoto asked after waving his hand in the air for multiple seconds. 

Once the ultimate lucky student was excused, he couldn’t stop himself from walking in quick strides as he headed straight for his room. He cursed his short stature and small legs as he turned corners and accidentally tripped more times than he’d like to admit.

Everything seemed normal for a moment as Makoto reached the dorm room corridor until he noticed one particular door was wide open.

His door.

Makoto Naegi’s walk soon became a jog before almost immediately becoming a full on sprint. He wasn’t the most athletic student in the school but right now he felt like he could run for miles without stopping as he finally reached the door and entered his room.

His place was a mess. The covers and pillows were thrown off the bed and the bathroom door was wide open; it was as if the police had conducted a search and seizure. Makoto felt his heart rate quicken as he began to comprehend what he was seeing. The words slipped out of his mouth before he even thought about the consequences of shouting, "Kiri! Kirigiri where are you?"

Makoto didn’t even care about whether anybody could hear him, all he cared about was finding his friend uninjured. His voice began to become hoarse as he shouted her name over and over as if the louder he became the better chance there would be for her to reveal herself.

Naegi refused to admit that fact that the room was empty until he had searched every nook and cranny and found only one item by his bed: Kyoko Kirigiri’s tie.


	5. No Escape

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it took a little while but it's finally here! Only one more chapter to go now and I'm very excited since it's going to be the most action packed and will eventually lead to the end of this story/ the beginning of Trigger Happy Havoc. Hopefully it won't take as long to post as this one did buuuuut no promises....anyways, enjoy!

After a particularly monotonous few hours, Kyoko Kirigiri couldn’t find even one tiny piece of conclusive evidence that proved the sisters’ innocence nor their guilt to Leon’s disappearance. 

The detective’s focal point during the investigation was of course to search for another obscure room, like the one in the men’s bathroom, around the school. She was hoping to find at least something that would explain what Enoshima and Ikusaba were up to but had ended up empty handed; one glance at the clock told her that the morning class was ending soon and the best course of action was to go back to Naegi’s room and figure out where to go from there.

Kyoko habitually glanced inside each room on her way back to see if she missed something until she reached the fourth floor where she attempted to open a particular door and found it locked. Kirigiri raised an eyebrow at this; it didn’t register until now but she had ignored this room on her first inspection without even realizing it.

When the students first had gotten a tour of the new building in which they would be spending the rest of their lives in, her father had waved off this room as unimportant and just some old storage closet. Kyoko couldn’t but wonder that if it truly was so unimportant why anybody would bother locking it up?

The only two reasonable explanations was that the headmaster either couldn’t enter the locked room himself or knew precisely how to enter and was just hiding whatever was inside from the students. Both options didn’t make her dad seem very innocent and this only heightened Kirigiri’s suspicions to a whole new level.

Picking the lock seemed logical at this point until the detective glanced at the clock and resisted the urge to curse under her breath. Class would be ending any minute now which would mean the suspects would be able to roam the hallways freely; breaking into this room would mean nothing if she would get caught only moments after. So the more intelligent choice was of course to return to Naegi’s room and either continue the investigation tonight or the next day during class once again.

The trek back to the dorms a difficult one for Kyoko as her instincts practically begged her to go back to the mysterious room and finish what she had started. Despite being accustomed to following her gut, the girl continued walking until she reached Naegi’s dorm room. 

Kirigiri wasn’t entirely sure if Makoto had unlocked the door for her or not but she didn’t have the time to find out. Just as she was about to reach the door knob, the door opened for itself and Kyoko found herself face to face with Mukuro Ikusaba herself.

One quick glance inside the room told the detective that the soldier had inspected every inch of the dorm, assumingely in search of none other than Kyoko herself. 

Kyoko considered her reaction time impressive in itself but Ikusaba’s was much better as she immediately reached out and gripped the detective in a tight headlock before she could even consider running away. Kirigiri knew that she could be dead or unconscious in a matter of seconds so she jumped and forced all her weight backwards so Ikusaba lost her footing which resulted in both teens landing hard against the floor.

The undoubtedly sharp pain in the soldier’s back from the collision causes her to lose her breath for a moment and loosen her grip on Kyoko; the girl used this time to roll off her attacker’s body and stand up only to feel someone grab her midsection and push her further into the room. Even in a dazed state, Mukuro could act quickly and Kiri found herself sliding across the floor before abruptly coming to a stop once making contact with the back wall.

"Ugh!" Kyoko let out a grunt of pain before her eyes landed on Ikusaba, who was already beginning to regain her footing. She stood no match against the ultimate soldier physically so her only chance of survival was to bring intelligence to the battle field. 

The detective stood on her feet as Mukuro’s eyes met her own. The next few seconds were the most nerve wracking seconds in her young life as the black haired girl slowly made her way towards her with a rag in her right hand and a clearly frustrated expression; Ikusaba was more than likely taking her time knowing that rushing into the fight would put her at a disadvantage when she had much more strength and skill in combat than her opponent…but it ended up being the wrong decision.

Once Mukuro made it past the bed, Kyoko went into action. The teen kicked one foot off the wall in order to gain momentum before running towards the open space on the left side of the solider. With the bed in the way, she was forced to jump over it in hopes that her limited athleticism would help her get far enough away from her attacker’s grasp.

Had Kiri landed on her feet, she most likely would have been able to catch Mukuro off guard enough to escape but instead she nearly fell flat on her face, using her hands and knees to soften her fall. Kyoko only had enough time to stand on her feet before she felt fingers attempt to wrap themselves around her arm; she was able to rip her arm away but the grasp forced her to face Ikusaba which gave the soldier the perfect chance to thrust her body forward and grab the detective’s tie tightly.

It was as if everything was in slow motion and Kyoko could see Mukuro gradually begin to tug the piece of clothing backwards which would unquestionably momentarily choke the detective and grant Ikusaba the chance do whatever she had originally planned with her victim. Thinking quickly, Kiri grabbed her own tie and yanked it undone in one fell swoop.

Mukuro’s momentum was used against her as she uselessly pulled on the tie causing her to fly backwards and trip over the bed; after doing an unintentional backflip, she fell face first onto the hard floor with a quiet groan of pain coming out of her mouth. 

Kyoko wasted no time sprinting out of the room, leaving the solider in a partially dazed state. Her feet pushed off the ground as the girl ran as hard and as fast as she could down the dormitory hallway and towards the school’s first floor classrooms.

Kirigiri had two options.

Option number one was the safe route. She could head straight to the classroom where all of her classmates were currently at and hope that over a dozen witnesses would stop Mukuro from harming her. The only problem with this decision was that it was incredibly selfish. Considering that the attacker was currently the ultimate soldier, she could easily take out an entire class full of teenagers without even breaking a sweat…Kyoko would only be putting her friends in danger which wasn’t what she wanted to do.

The other option was plainly obvious and was for Kiri to run as hard she can and for as long as she can. This would only be a temporary plan of course, everyone inside the building was trapped inside the school because of the worst most despair inducing incident in man kind, so she would have to think of another plan as she hid.

Quick footsteps were clearly heard behind Kyoko who was pushing herself even harder as she passed a row of lockers; Mukuro would be on her tail in a matter of seconds so the detective was forced to improvise. In order to stay out of the ultimate soldier’s line of sight, Kyoko headed directly towards the stairs and ran towards the second floor. Her footsteps echoed throughout the school but staying quiet was pointless if Ikusaba caught up to her.

Once she was at the top of the stairs, Kyoko made a sharp left towards the pool room. Running in plain view would get her caught eventually so she had no choice but to sneak inside the closest area and remain hidden.

The last thing Kirigiri expected to see as she entered was…Byakuya Togami standing near the boy’s locker room holding the door wide open.

Kyoko immediately halted to a stop only a few feet away from where the Ultimate Affluent Progeny was standing. Dozens of questions formed in her head but before she could even ask a single one, the blond interrupted her thoughts. "Well are you coming to the one place that mutt won’t be able to get you or are you willing to be dog food for that thing? I’m perfectly fine with either one, just make sure to let me know so I can shut the door."

The insults was a common occurrence coming from the arrogant Togami so Kyoko paid them no mind as she graciously accepted the boy’s offer and ran into the men’s locker room just before Byakuya closed it behind her. This was a perfect place to hide considering a male’s handbook was needed to enter the room…which Kiri could only assume Mukuro didn’t have.

The ache in Kyoko’s legs only grew stronger, forcing her to plop down on the floor as she attempted to catch her breath. The girl had the potential to be an average athlete with her stature and body type but she wasn’t really one to enjoy sports or running for that matter so her endurance was especially limited. The detective wiped a bead of sweat that began dripping down her forehead as she looked up towards her classmate.

Byakuya was wearing his usual school uniform and had his arms crossed with an expression of pure annoyance on his face which he had a habit of wearing a majority of days. He seemed to be waiting for her to do something but the strong burn in the girl’s lungs kept her silent, forcing Togami to speak first. "Well? I would expect a detective to start questioning me on what I’m doing instead of just sitting there like some sort of dead slug."

"What are you doing out of class? How did you know about Ikusaba…and more importantly, why did you help me hide?" Kyoko finally found her voice as she raised three vital questions; the final one more intriguing than the former two considering Byakuya wasn’t known for his kindness.

"You weren’t the only one doing your research the last couple of days, Kirigiri." Byakuya chuckled with a small grin on his face as if he relished having information that the ultimate detective had yet to grasp. "I’ve been suspicious of Enoshima and Ikusaba for a while now; it was clear to me they were planning something that an ordinary student wouldn’t dream of but it proved quite difficult to find precisely what that was while they’re so secretive and always cover up any tracks they leave behind them. I found out a few clues on what they’re attempting but that’s not important, what I’ve figured out is that a secret room on the fourth floor of this school was locked and that gave me a strong impression that everything I want to know is inside there."

Kyoko’s mind flashed back to the locked room she came across only moments ago in which her dad had originally called a storage closet.

Togami continued. "I had no luck breaking in, the door is very difficult to break into, which only heightened my curiosity. I was considering having that idiot author aid me during class today when I saw Ikusaba suddenly leaving the classroom. Being naturally suspicious of that random event I excused myself as well and followed along behind her secretly. Turns out the mutt decided to break into Makoto Naegi’s dorm room…I couldn’t find out why until I saw you trudging along behind her. Once I heard the fight going on inside the room, I quickly came here and waited for you to come along so I could assist you in finding a place to hide."

"So you helped because you think I can break inside the locked door." Kyoko began to deduce Byakuya’s plan before he could finish explaining.

The affluent progeny smirked even wider as he pushed his thin glasses further up the bridge of his nose. "I predicted the ultimate detective would figure it out eventually. That’s why I assumed you would be able to escape from Ikusaba alive."

"I don’t think she’s trying to assassinate me. If she was, I wouldn’t be standing here right now." The girl began to speculate . "She was purposely trying to keep me breathing and relatively unharmed though I’m unsure exactly why. Kidnapping isn’t her specialty though which was why I was able to temporarily get away."

"Then I suppose that means we’ll have to open the door before she gets to you then." 

"What makes you assume that I’ll help you?"

Byakuya let out a breathy, quiet laugh. "So you’re telling me you’re not curious about what’s in there? You’re trapped inside a school with the world’s deadliest soldier out to get you…there’s no way out of this. I would guess that you’d want to at least figure out why you’re on her hit list before the end comes, no?"

Before Kyoko could respond, loud footsteps could suddenly be heard from just outside the pool room. She stayed absolutely silent, barely breathing, and Byakuya followed her lead without hesitation.

Unfortunately silence did nothing as the attacker seemed to know exactly where they were hiding; four loud knocks rained down against the locker room door. The chance of escape seemed minuscule until the voice outside spoke and Kyoko felt her heart skip beat at what came out of the boy’s mouth.

"Kiri? Are you in there?"

***

"What do you mean you lost them? Isn’t violent shit the one thing you’re actually good at?" Junko laughed at the irony once her sister informed her that Kyoko Kirigiri had gotten out of her grasp. The blonde was currently sitting on her dorm room bed after class sitting criss cross with her sister in front of her, close to tears. "You know that if the plan is screwed now then it’s your fault, right?"

"I-I know…I’m so sorry, Junko." Mukuro’s voice came out in a murmur as her voice cracked in shame. She stared directly at the floor, unable to meet her younger sister’s gaze.

Junko stayed silent for a moment, letting the wonderful despair from this failure sink in before she spoke again. "Well then I guess you need to be punished for this. Come over my lap for a spanking." Junko adjusted herself so her legs were leaning off her bed before patting her lap.  
The soldier’s face immediately reddened at the sound of this as she looked up to see if Junko was serious. "S…spanking? Like a kid?"

"Yup, your ass is going to be redder than tomatoes by the time I’m finished. Now get over here before I change my mind."

Mukuro hesitated as the blush reached her neck and ears at this point. She had experienced many different dangerous and life threatening situations before during her short life, especially in Fenrir, but never had to worry about something as ludicrous as a spanking! The girl slowly began to make her way to Junko hoping that her sister would take back this humiliating proposal!

The blonde teen only stayed silent as Mukuro began to shakily make her way over her lap; just as her stomach was going to make contact with Junko’s long legs, Junko shoved Mukuro off of her, causing the soldier to let out a grunt of pain as she made contact with the ground. 

"I was kidding, gross! As if anybody would want to touch your bony ass!" The ultimate despair stood up and dusted off her skirt. "Our plan isn’t finished yet, we just have to ignore a bunch of steps and skip to the very end. Muku my dear ugly sister, you have a lot of work to do today…The killing game begins now."


	6. The Finish Line

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this took forever to post but I do have good news: this ended up being the longest chapter by far! I loved writing this story and I'm glad I was finally able to finish it considering I do have some problems finding the motivation to complete projects that I start. If you don't think my writing sucks and are interested in any future fanfics I write then make sure to check out the chapter notes at the end of the epilogue to see what ideas I have in my head...anyways, enjoy!

"I-Ikusaba? Do you need something?" A quiet voice came out of Chihiro Fujisaki’s mouth as he fiddled nervous with his open dorm room door’s handle. It was quite clear to Mukuro that he wasn’t expecting her to visit him; they haven’t even spoke outside of a few greetings before so she wasn’t too surprised about that.

"I need to speak with you. Can I come in?" The soldier responded to the ultimate programmer with no emotion worn on her face or heard in her voice. Most would be suspicious of this behavior if it wasn’t a common occurrence for the normally reticent student.

Chihiro seemed more embarrassed than anything from the situation as he sniffled a bit as if the nearly inaudible noise would break the awkward silence. "Um…I suppose so if it’s important." The high pitched voice cracked for a moment as the boy turned around in an attempt to go further into his room. "Let me just get cha-"

CRACK

This moment of vulnerability was all the ultimate soldier needed as her elbow connected firmly with the back of the frail teen’s head, knocking him unconscious and on the floor in an instant. 

Unlike Leon, the process of catching the shy Chihiro off guard wasn’t difficult nor was it a lengthy process. The only reason Mukuro bothered to hit him physically was because she needed to make the boy a speedy job considering she had to take care of many other conscious students in a matter of hours before they began to realize Mukuro was hunting them down one by one.

Pushing Chihiro’s body further into the room so he wasn’t out in the open, Ikusaba pulled out a black ink pen along with a white piece of paper that listed each of the fourteen ultimate students which of course excluded Junko Enoshima and herself. Mukuro crossed off another name off that list.

Two down. Twelve to go.

***

"Kyoko! I’m so glad you’re okay!" Makoto felt a strong amount of relief fill throughout his body to see his friend was alright once the men’s locker room was opened for him; he wasn’t bothered by the fact that a girl was once again hanging out inside of a ‘boy’s only zone’ and had gotten used to it at this point.

"Yes, I’m fine." Kiri seemed to be relieved herself for an entirely different reason as a small smile appeared on her face. It was either an expression that was happy Makoto had appeared or one that was glad someone else hadn’t.

The lucky student wasn’t entirely sure whether to hug Kiri from excitement or shake her hand…he eventually decided to awkwardly rub the back of his head instead of touching a girl so closely. "A-are you hurt or something? My room was a mess when I saw it last so I was really worried."

The sound of a male clearing his throat interrupted Kyoko before she could get the chance to respond. Byakuya Togami suddenly spoke in a disinterested and impatient tone, "As much as I love seeing the two of you so passionate for each other, Ikusaba is still reigning the halls waiting for fresh meat to devour. I suggest we leave here before we’re next."

"M-Mukuro?" Makoto was caught off guard at the sound of her name but deep down he had a feeling that his silent friend was the cause of Togami and Kirigiri hiding inside such a peculiar location. "You don’t mean-"

"She attacked me when I went to your dorm room earlier." Despite Kiri’s usual monotone voice, Makoto couldn’t help but hear a tiny bit of an ‘I told you so’ attitude as she explained the situation. "I rarely escaped but it’s blatantly clear that Ikusaba must have been attempting to kidnap me or worse; we can only assume she is the reason why Leon had randomly gone missing the day before. Togami and I have agreed to break into a strange room on the fourth floor to see if she is hiding anything in there before she attacks us again." Kyoko took a second to glance at Byakuya as if she were just confirming this now before aiming her attention back at Naegi. "I would suggest that you come too, it’s dangerous to be lurking around the halls with Ikusaba still out there."

Makoto paused for a moment as he processed the large amount of information before his smile slowly disappeared and was replaced with a frown. "Wait a second, why would Mukuro start attacking us out of nowhere? Maybe…maybe we should try to talk to her and see if someone is forcing her to do this. That way-"  
"Does it matter what reason she had?" Kyoko interrupted with a rare expression of annoyance worn on her face. "She attacked us so our best course of action is to avoid the threat, not go looking for it."

Byakuya rolled his eyes and forced his way into the conversation. "I’ll be in the hallway. Meet me in there once your little ‘couple dispute’ is over with." The blond left the locker room swiftly while shutting the door behind him. Makoto ignored Togami and continued the argument.

"Of course it matters, she’s our friend. We have to believe that there’s something wrong and help her!"

"Why do you trust her so much? Just because she’s a girl? You’ve never even had a proper conversation!" Kiri’s voice began to slowly rise and Makoto felt his own rising in return.

"I’m not about to give up on my friend just because it’ll be easier to ignore her!"

"That’s ridiculous, there has to be some point in your life where you realize that it’s possible for your supposed buddies to betray your trust." 

"I don’t just give up on my friends like that!" Makoto retorted. "I actually care for other people besides myself!"

He immediately regretted the words the second they left his mouth. The way Naegi worded his statement sounded as if he was accusing Kyoko of being selfish and the insult clearly struck a chord; the detective seemed genuinely hurt before the expression of pain promptly vanished as soon as it had came and was replaced with her usual stiff and unemotional attitude. 

"Kiri, I-"

"I’m leaving to the fourth floor." Kyoko brushed past the boy without even bothering to let him finish his apology. "Go find Ikusaba if you’d like, who am I to stop you?" The ultimate detective strode outside of the locker room and after a moment of hesitation with Makoto eventually following behind her. 

He hadn’t decided whether or not he’d follow Byakuya and Kiri or look for Mukuro…but it turns out that he wouldn’t have to.

At first Makoto thought he heard a scream come out of Kyoko’s mouth until realizing that the yell had escaped from his own lips. Never in his life did he expect to see the scene in front of him: Mukuro Ikusaba was standing above a comatose Byakuya Togami with her fingers firmly gripping his hair as if she were seconds away from ripping his skull apart from the rest of his body.

The scariest part of this image was not the affluent progeny’s seemingly lifeless body but instead the solider’s lifeless blue eyes which Makoto had never truly seen before. They made his classmate seem inhuman in a way almost as if she were a robot instead of a living person.

"Naegi, run!" Kirigiri’s voice called out to him as she grabbed his hand and began to practically drag him towards the other side of the hallway away from Mukuro. The boy’s legs followed suit but he couldn’t tear his sight away from the black haired girl whose eyes raised and met his own. 

He could almost sense a small amount of guilt in those aqua colored irises of hers which immediately vanished once a scratchy voice came shouting from the floor below. "Is everything alright up there?" The voice undoubtedly belonged to Sakura Ogami. 

Mukuro seemed hesitant for a moment as if she were considering whether to chase after Makoto and Kyoko or focus on Sakura. Eventually she grimaced before turning her body and running down the stairs and towards Ogami’s voice in a hurry.

‘This can’t be real. This has to be a dream! This can’t be real! If I pinch myself, I have to wake up!’

Yet no matter how hard and how many times he pinched himself, Makoto Naegi would not wake up from this nightmare.

***

"Hey wake up! Are you truly going to ignore royalty?" 

"Mmf…" 

Junko Enoshima smiled brightly with her hands on her hips, her chest thrusted outwards, and her chin raised upwards as if she were a queen. Unfortunately her antics couldn’t be see by Jin Kirigiri who had just woken up with a blindfold covering his eyes and another one around his mouth, preventing him from speaking. The Hope’s Peak Headmaster could only let out muffled shouts as he squirmed around only to realize he was tied down to a chair. Even if Jin wasn’t wearing his blindfold, the small room was completely dark and compact; it was difficult for even Enoshima to see anything. There was no furniture to be found anywhere. 

"Mmf! Mmf!"

"Oh yeah you can’t talk. Well that’s no fun." The fashionista muttered while dropping her ‘queen’ masquerade and returned to her normal voice and stature. Junko couldn’t help but smirk at the sight of the man helplessly trying to escape; she bent over a little with her hands on her knees so her face was only mere inches away from his own. "This is Junko Enoshima. I don’t know if you could tell but I’ve always had a love hate relationship with you. On one hand, your idiocy and cluelessness helped me reach this point but on the other hand I’ve had to deal with your ignorance and stupid teaching for a year now…it was quite painful for me just so you know. I feel that it’s only fair I return that despair by telling you my plan which you have no chance in stopping."

Junko paused a second to laugh loudly to herself from excitement before continuing.

"I’m going to wipe the memories from each and every ultimate student in this place. Once they’ve forgotten about the most tragic event in human history, I’m going to personally tell them that I’ve trapped them here and the only way to escape is through murder. The planet’s final pieces of hope will be led to murder each other in cold blood, and let me not forget to add, on live television for the entire planet to see!" The blonde was shouting now and she had to take a deep breath in order to continue speaking. "I want to thank YOU most of all Mr. Kirigiri! I wouldn’t have been able to spread this ultimate despair without you, sir!"

A pleasurable sigh came out of Junko’s breath as she gripped Jin’s hair firmly, her longs nails undoubtedly scratching his scalp, before giving him a soft kiss on the top of his forehead which was soaking with sweat by the time the teen had finished explaining the forthcoming tragedy. 

"MMF, MFF, MFF!" The muffled shouting became moans of distress as the headmaster fought against the ropes with all of his might. These attempts would remain fruitless and resulted with the man falling to the ground hard on his side.

A snicker slipped out of Junko’s mouth as she brought her hands close together and resembled the appearance of an anime character with her large baby blue eyes. "Your despair is sooooooo adorable!" The ultimate despair broke into a fit of giggles as she abruptly turned around and began to leave the room.

"Well I suppose this is our final goodbye, Kirigiri!" Junko once against returned to normality as she opened the door with a majority of her body already out in the hallway. "The next person you’ll be seeing is Monokuma. Make sure to let him know I said hello! Also, don’t worry about your daughter…I’ll be taking good care of her from now on."

Junko could only smile devilishly at the cries and shouts she received in return as she soaked the despair in for a moment before shutting the door behind her.

***

"Ikusaba! Did someone scream up there?" Mukuro remained calm and collected as she made her way down towards the first floor of the school with Sakura Ogami in front of her. The muscular student looked worried though there wasn’t even an ounce of suspicion on her face as she spoke; the soldier could definitely use this to her advantage. 

"Yes, Makoto tripped and hurt himself while on his way to the pool. Could you help carry him to the infirmary?" The soldier asked doing her best to add fake concern into her voice.

"Of course!" Sakura replied immediately as she made her way past Mukuro and quickly headed towards the stairs…with the large girl’s back turned away like many of Ikusaba’s previous victims, Mukuro realized this was her best if not only chance to get an advantage in a fight with the ultimate martial artist.

Without even hesitating, Mukuro jumped towards the ‘ogre’ and wrapped her thin arms around the muscular teen’s neck in hopes of choking her to unconsciousness. This plan would have worked easily for any normal person though Sakura was far from normal. The girl quickly jumped back and slammed Ikusaba into the wall behind her; Mukuro had enough pain tolerance to keep her grip on Ogami while wearing a grimace on her face from the sharp pain in her back. Despite this, the ultimate soldier’s grasp had loosened considerably, allowing Sakura to easily lift the smaller girl off of her and into the air before dropping her carefully onto the hard floor. The martial artist seemed caught off guard though the fact that she had been alerted of Mukuro’s betrayal lowered the black haired teen’s chances of winning this fight by a staggering amount. 

"What’s wrong with you? Are you crazy?" Sakura asked, clearly doing her best to stay calm and rational despite feeling obvious agitation from being attacked so suddenly.

Biting was a very popular tactic for children more so than soldiers but if there was one thing that Mukuro’s time with Fenrir taught her, it was this: you do anything you can to not get caught by the enemy.

A grunt of pain escape the ogre’s lips once Ikusaba used her canines to chomp down hard on Ogami’s fingers. The natural reaction was of course for Sakura to pull her injured hand away which gave Mukuro just enough time to stand up on her feet and sprint towards the gym in an effort to gain proper spacing from her enemy.

Mukuro ignored the multiple shouts of, "Ikusaba, wait!" The pleas seemed more distressed than accusatory which only confirmed the ogre’s soft interior. This would only aid the ultimate solider as she entered through the large double doors and stopped directly in the middle of the room. 

This gave Sakura just enough time to catch up and practically tackle Mukuro to the ground. The weight Ogami had in pure muscle made escape impossible unless Sakura stood up, which was very unlikely…this was of course exactly what Junko had planned from the very beginning. Mukuro screamed the one word that her older sister had told her to say once she was stuck in this position. "Now!"

At least five tranquilizer darts came down from seemingly nowhere and all slammed into different parts of the ogre’s body. One hit her on the arm, another hit her shoulder, and a third one made contact with her neck. To Sakura’s credit, she swayed for a few moments with a confused expression before falling to the ground; after only a few seconds the teen was out cold.

While this method of knocking a teenager into unconsciousness would be dangerous to most kids, Sakura Ogami wasn’t considered human to most regular people. It was very likely that she would wake up perfectly fine with no side effects whatsoever. This was why Junko had inserted those projectiles into the wall apparently though Mukuro couldn’t help but feel slightly unnerved at the fact that tranquilizer darts could be sent out at any moment from the control room her sister was inside of. 

Ikusaba groaned as she rubbed her sore neck before standing onto her feet; while she got a few bruises and scratches from the fight, it was still impressive that she was able to win even if she had technically cheated.

"Hey! What’s going on over there?" A lazy voice which could only belong to Yasuhiro Hagakure shouted into the air as loud footsteps followed his voice.

"W-w-why are you dragging me along?" Another timid voice, this time female, called out to Hiro. Ikusaba figured this was Toko Fukawa.

A loud gulp echoed in the halls as the ultimate clairvoyant responded. "I’m scared, alright? What if it’s a ghost or something?"

Mukuro stared directly at the entrance to the gym as she focused and prepared herself for her classmates to enter. It seems as if the time to take the students out one by one was over and now she must expose her true power as the ultimate soldier and take care of the rest in one go. 

Three…two…one…

The gymnasium doors flew open.

***

"It’s open." Makoto muttered as Kyoko and he stood in front of the fourth floor locked room the detective and Byakuya had mentioned earlier. The only difference was that the supposedly closed door was currently wide open. "Didn’t you say it was locked?"

"It was. Apparently someone beat us here." Kirigiri responded flatly with pure curiosity replacing what would usually be anxiety for any normal high schooler. "Let’s head inside, we don’t have much time." The ultimate detective took a few steps inside only to pause after hearing the boy’s voice behind her."Wait!"

A sigh escaped from Kiri’s lips though she turned towards Makoto with an impatient expression on her tired face…even in this dangerous situation, she still seemed to be upset with his words back at the locker room.

The brunet cleared his throat nervously before speaking. "Shouldn’t one of us wait outside and be lookout? I don’t mind-.""That won’t be necessary." Kyoko turned on her heel one final time in order to face the room again. "Even if you did sacrifice yourself to warn me when Ikusaba appeared, I wouldn’t be able to avoid the ultimate soldier twice. Might as well stay together for now." Almost immediately after she was done talking, the girl strode past the doorway without even glancing for a second behind her. 

"Good plan." Makoto mumbled. His original plan was to gain an opportunity to talk to Mukuro alone in order to find out what was wrong with her yet somehow every single one of his classmates each had a bad habit of not asking him for his opinion whenever coming up with ideas…the lucky student was beginning to think he should blame his own laid back attitude instead of his friends at this point.

A nearly inaudible gasp came out of Naegi’s mouth as he entered the room only to see a couple of dark black desks in the middle of the compact space along with dozens of monitors in front of them; there was also a door with a picture of a black and white bear painted on it in the middle of the back wall…while this place was certainly weird it didn’t become truly creepy until both teens took a closer look at the screens and realized pasted on the monitors were live videos of different rooms in this very school. The worst part was that the inside of every single personal dorm room could be seen; Aoi Asahina could be be seen clearly on the bottom right most screen eating a pink sprinkled donut on her bed.

Before Makoto could even completely process what he was seeing, Kyoko suddenly gripped his arm and began to drag him towards the door with some bear on it. "H-hey! What is all this?" The boy asked even though he knew his classmate didn’t know what was going on either. He was just hoping the ultimate detective would have some clue on what all this sneaky junk was!

"This room must be important. Follow me." There was only two simple words in which to describe Kyoko’s responses as of late: short and sweet…actually, that might need to be changed to one word now that Makoto thought about the girl’s recent attitude.   
The brunet was expecting the room to be locked but was surprised to see it opened fairly easily once Kiri turned the doorknob. 

A sigh escaped Naegi’s lips; he figured it would be just as odd as the last room but for some reason once he saw the tight closet like area filled with one single chair and a humongous, futuristic, and expensive looking computer screen in front of them, he couldn’t help but feel disappointed. "Who had the time to build all of this stuff?" Makoto once again asked a question without expecting a response.

"I find it hard to believe that Ikusaba alone would build this type of place." Kyoko answered a query from the lucky student for the first time in a while. "She either had help or just took advantage of what was already built." The detective ignored Makoto as if he wasn’t even there and walked over to the keyboard, pressing buttons as if she were the ultimate programmer himself.

Makoto stayed silent for a few moments in hopes that whatever Kiri was doing would work already when a loud dinging sound could be heard behind them causing the boy to jump. "What was that?"

Of course Kyoko continued ignoring him and continued to press more buttons, earning a few more dings and other weird sounds coming from somewhere close but not quite inside the room they were in. The purple haired teen’s facial expression suddenly revealed that she had an idea about what on Earth was happening.

"I believe what’s on the screen right now is the control room right next to us…that must mean this keyboard controls a camera; though the problem seems to be that I can move the camera to any part of the room I want with only a few buttons." Kirigiri muttered to herself quietly as she was clearly attempting to deduce the what was on the screen in her head. The girl suddenly turned to Makoto. "Naegi, stay here and look at the screen. I’m going to leave and check the other room; tell me what you see once I’m there."

Makoto gave the detective a small nod as he made his way towards the screen as the purple haired girl passed him by. The brunet wasn’t about to say anything to Kiri as she made her way to the door but he suddenly felt a sharp pinch in his gut come out of nowhere just begging him to speak up…so he did. "Kiri, wait!" The boy shouted as he turned to see Kyoko’s hand on the doorknob.

Kyoko said nothing as she stared directly at the door. Makoto awaited his classmate’s response until finally realizing a few moments later that she was waiting for him to talk before saying anything. 

The boy cleared his throat.

"I really didn’t mean what I said before and I-I was just upset that you didn’t trust Mukuro. I realize now that I’m the one who doesn’t trust my friends…because I didn’t trust you…and you’re my friend, Kiri. I trust your instincts and if you think Ikusaba is trying to hurt us then I believe you. I still think that she has another reason for doing this though so from now on I’m going to trust every single one of my classmates, even if they don’t trust each other. No matter what; even if nobody else does because that’s what friends are for. To trust each other."

Silence filled the room for what seemed like forever. Makoto could only guess that his declaration that he was going to trust both her and Mukuro only made her that much angrier until a silent chuckle escape the detective’s lips.

"You truly are as naive as always. Do me a favor, Makoto." Kyoko finally turned around with a small grin plastered on her face. "Never change."

Kyoko Kirigiri walked through the door and shut it behind her, leaving Makoto in the room to ponder her words by himself.

"Thanks, Kyoko." The lucky student murmured to himself wearing a smile similar to his friend’s grin once he decided she took his apparent naivety as a good quality…even if naive wasn’t quite the adjective he was looking for when describing himself.

It was as if the dangerous situation of being stuck in a school with a possible murderer had finally kicked in as Naegi felt much more focused while heading towards the gigantic screen in front of him with determination. Once Kiri’s theory was confirmed then they could focus on how to handle Mukuro and whoever else she was working with.

Only a few moments later, an image of a purple haired teenager appeared in front of Makoto’s screen…Kyoko! She was looking at the camera with a confused expression though she seemed to be right that it was currently recording the other room. Makoto was nearly going to shout to Kiri from where he stood until a loud crashing sound could be heard from both the control room next door and through the camera’s speakers.

Makoto’s eyes widened as he saw Mukuro Ikusaba forced herself through the closed door before entering the room while holding what seemed to be an old gray rag in her right hand. The brunet’s eyes widened as Mukuro quickly made her way towards the stunned detective.  
"Kyoko, run!" Naegi shouted at the top of his lungs, unsure if his friend could even hear him from the other side of the wall; it was quite obvious that the ultimate soldier didn’t enter the room just to say hello. Makoto quickly pushed himself away from the keyboard and dashed towards the other room as fast as his legs could take him.

By the time Makoto had pushed himself out of the door into the control room where the two girls stood, it was too late. Mukuro currently had an arm wrapped around Kyoko’s neck as the detective seemed to still be breathing but also unconscious much like Byakuya had been not too long ago. He was too late to save her and couldn’t help but whimper quietly, "No…"

Makoto’s heart beat began to accelerate quicker as more time passed. The soldier slowly began to look up at the boy until they were making eye contact. 

He had never felt fear from of a classmate before…not this type of fear anyways. Even during the first day of school at Hope’s Peak when everyone was dead silent once Mukuro entered the room, most minds went straight to all the rumors of the vicious girl murdering and torturing both innocent and evil people with the group Fenrir. Makoto was one of the only people in the class to greet the raven haired girl like a normal teenager would and even do something as simple as smiling at her without a second thought. He figured Hope’s Peak would never allow a killer to enter the school and treated her like any other person; it was pretty obvious to even a guy like him that she had a habit of staring at him in the class sometimes and other small oddities ever since that first day.

"Are you scared right now?" Ikusaba’s voice was nearly a whisper. She wore her usual blank expression as she stared directly at the boy, her voice unwavering.

Makoto couldn’t really tell if she was trying to intimidate him before going for the kill or was genuinely curious if he was afraid she was going to hurt him or take his life. He considered they both knew he was seconds away from throwing up his breakfast from the tension in the room so he changed the subject instead of responding.

"You don’t have to do this, Mukuro." The boy did his best not to look as Kyoko’s seemingly lifeless body or else the strong urge to puke would only increase. "I-I know you don’t want to do this. You’re not that type of person so please just tell me why you’re hurting people and I can…I can do my best to help you."

"How do you know what type of person I am? I’m a murderer. I’ve taken countless lives from people before so why are you so insistent that I’m not going to do the same to you?"

Naegi gulped. "I don’t know what you’re planning to do to me and I definitely don’t know about your past." He admitted. "What I do know is that you have a choice. That choice is to either continue doing whatever you’re doing and take me out next…or you can change. You can let me go and we can both help everyone you’ve hurt-"

"Change? It’s too la-"

"It’s never too late to change!" Makoto was too determined to lose this battle of interruptions as he spoke louder so Mukuro’s quiet whispers couldn’t be heard over his own voice. "I don’t care if this entire school is against you, I will stay by your side defending you until the end. They’ll have to kick us both out of this place before I let them do something to you. Anything is better then what you’re planning, Mukuro, trust me."

The soldier seemed to be at a loss for words as her hold on Kyoko’s body loosened and Makoto felt hope that he actually had a chance to convince his classmate to stop this! She looked up at him with a sad expression he had never in his last year in this school seen from a quiet girl like Ikusaba. "Why would you do that for me? We’ve barely even talked before now."

This was quite possible the easiest answer the soldier has asked him yet.

"You’re my friend. I made a promise not too long ago to not give up on my friends and that includes you. Even if my other friends are all against us, I’ll believe in you no matter what."

The room was once again filled with silence as Ikusaba stared directly at the ground. The quiet room was filled with only Makoto’s heavy breathing and explosive heart beat. He continued to wear a brave expression despite his fears because of the hope that resided inside of him. Though once he heard Mukuro’s response, he couldn’t help but feel as if he had just been stabbed directly in the heart with a sharp object.

"Thank you, Makoto. I almost believed that for a second." Mukuro dropped the detective’s unconscious body before slowly making her way towards the brunet like a predator takings its time killing their prey. "You have a good heart. I hope you’re able to survive longer than I expect you to."

There was no time for Makoto to run or even consider attempting to escape. Mukuro quickly wrapped the shorter teenager in a head lock and brought the rag to his mouth as he slowly began to ease into unconsciousness along with his fellow thirteen classmates scattered across the school.

Even as this occurred, Makoto Naegi didn’t bother struggling or anything of that sort. This was because while he was scared, he still believed in the ultimate soldier Mukuro Ikusaba and for that matter, everyone else inside this abandoned building. There was a reason she was doing this and he was going to fight hard to figure out why and how to help her. Makoto believed this because he refused to break his promise and give up believing in his friends even in this situation. No matter what, he would continued believing in every single one of them.

The Ultimate Hope told this to himself over and over again until everything around him eventually turned black.


	7. Epilogue

"Come on, flat ass Muku! We only have a couple more minutes until the others wake up so you better not fuck this up by acting like your usual depressing and boring self, alright? Remember! You’re the ultimate fashionista so act like it!"

Junko Enoshima’s annoyed voice spoke to her sister one final time before shutting the speaker in the spacious room off, most likely to focus on adding any final adjustments to Monokuma or something else that aided in this evil murder game.

Mukuro Ikusaba currently stood alone in the large entrance halls with a giant metallic door behind her. The soldier was currently wearing Junko’s school uniform along with a wig with blonde pigtails which had taken way too long to put on. 

There were a couple frustrating issues with this costume: first was of course her far too short skirt which exposed more than enough of her skinny legs and pale thighs; Mukuro had a habit of attempting to push the clothing down lower as if that would increase it’s length enough to make her feel more comfortable moving around without flashing anyone. The other problem was of course the fake red nails she was forced to wear which was basically digging it’s way into her fingers; the fact that the girl nearly broke a nail every time she scratched an itchy body part made this whole situation that much worse.

Of course the worst part of this fake Junko Enoshima idea was of course the acting part. Ikusaba’s personality was far from the outspoken character that her sister wanted her to be. She figured she could force herself to act like this convincingly for a while though if this game truly did go on longer then a week, it could definitely wear her out eventually…the idea of tricking the people whom she has spent the past year with and watching them murder each other very soon after also wasn’t very enticing despite Ikusaba not wanting to admit that to herself.

The sound of a door swinging open caused Mukuro to immediately look upwards to see a few clueless students entering the room with Celestia Ludenberg leading the way. The pale teen raised an eyebrow once she saw the fashionista in a room alone and asked, "Who are you?"

‘Junko’ would hate to admit this but she couldn’t help but glance at each and everyone one of the increasingly large pile of students entering inside in hopes of finding a certain someone…but he seemed to be one of the only few students absent. While admittedly disappointing, it was only natural since he was the last few to be caught and memory wiped.

The new Enoshima cleared her voice before giving the crowd a giant smile while sticking two fingers out in a peace sign. "Hiii! I’m Junko Enoshima. Charmed, I’m sure!" 

While Mukuro wasn’t quite as fond of this murder game as she originally thought, there still was one thing for certain.

Mukuro had no issue following along with this plan because Junko needed help bringing the world into despair.

Mukuro would do anything as long as it helped her sister.

TO BE CONTINUED…IN DANGANRONPA: TRIGGER HAPPY HAVOC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me say this again: thank you so much for reading this two month long fanfic! I struggled uploading consistently towards the end there but I consider this a success for my first attempt creating a fanfic and writing in general even if it didn't get many comments or anything flashy like that; I do appreciate you silent readers though...yes I know you're out there! 
> 
> I do have a few ideas now that I trust myself enough to know I won't just ditch projects without completing them. I had ideas for a continuation of Danganronpa: IF with everything in this story being canon, a slice of life type of fanfic with the class before the most despair inducing incident ever, and maybe even a little one shot with Kyoko and Makoto or Mukuro and Makoto sounds fun! If any of those interest you then make sure to keep an eye on my account every once in a while for my next post! I'll probably be taking a little break but I'll definitely be back on track soon. Thanks again!


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